Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/August 13 to 19, 2023

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (August 13 to 19, 2023)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Marinette2356, Rajan51, and Ollieisanerd.

⭠ Last week's report → Next week's report

Gotta love the sweet taste of India
Blame it on the beat of the drum...

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Gadar 2	2,937,682	India loves action. Bollywood and Kollywood joined hands last week to deliver not one, but two action films that together broke the record for the country's biggest-ever box office weekend, with help from #5. One stars Sunny Deol in a historical film set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that is a sequel to a 22-year-old film, while the other is a thriller starring Rajnikanth as a retired police officer. The two have already become the second and third highest-grossing Indian films of 2023, helped by the fact that last week had a holiday, #3.
2	Jailer (film)	1,957,639
3	Independence Day (India)	1,637,730	Before going to the theatres last Tuesday, Indians celebrated their 77th Independence day from Britain.
4	Oppenheimer (film)	1,376,365	From Bollywood and Kollywood to Hollywood, where Christopher Nolan's R-rated biopic became the highest-grossing World War II-related film, following which it broke another, more unique record, becoming the highest-grossing movie in the domestic market that never reached the top spot at the box office, because of #10.
5	OMG 2	1,196,676	Back to Bollywood, this time for a comedy/drama film that is a spiritual sequel starring Akshay Kumar that was released along with #1 and #2.
6	J. Robert Oppenheimer	1,014,363	The father of the atomic bomb may have fallen out of the top 5, but he continues to get views, thanks to #4, where he is played by Cillian Murphy.
7	Sridevi	1,005,076	When this Indian actress died in 2018, millions went checking if it was true on Wikipedia, enough to land her on the year's most viewed articles. And now her article has once again got a viewer spike as Google homaged Sridevi on what would be her 60th birthday.
8	Deaths in 2023	939,567	From the repertoire of a non-binary singer, who also sings in the soundtrack of #10: Told me not to cry when you were gone But the feeling's overwhelming, it's much too strong...
9	Michael Oher	909,055	During the weekend where he won Super Bowl XLVII, this American football player requested no questions about The Blind Side, the movie telling the story of how Oher was brought into a rich white family who helped him overcome a turbulent life to finish high school and become a successful athlete. Oher has now sued Leigh Anne Tuohy and her husband (the wife takes precedence, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar playing her...) claiming they made millions off him in a conservatorship. The Tuohys in turn denied the allegations while adding that they will end the thing anyway.
10	Barbie (film)	896,825	Greta Gerwig's latest film, aside from being a huge commercial success (it hit $1 billion at global box office, became Warner Bros.' highest-grossing film domestically, surpassing The Dark Knight, which was ironically created by the same guy who directed #4, and also became the studio's second highest-grossing film worldwide, only behind a certain magical boy) and a paradise for those obsessed with the colour pink, turned out to also be incredibly well made, with great jokes, great cast and some important messages regarding patriarchy and feminism. Perhaps the only missed opportunities were a song by Pink and Ken getting hit in between the legs and not being affected by it. Instead, we got Ryan Gosling singing himself so I believe that's (K)enough.
11	Blue Beetle (film)	785,251	The DC Extended Universe is about to be folded/rebooted, but the DC Universe honchos have stated that they will incorporate the hero of one of its last movies, Xolo Maridueña's Jaime Reyes, a Mexican-American who gets superpowered armor from an extraterrestrial device resembling a scarab. Reviewers responded well to the comedic and family-focused approach, and Blue Beetle ended #10's streak atop the box office, albeit now it remains to be seen if the movie will avoid the financial disappointments of Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash (it should at least get a positive response south of the border, as the movie is so Mexican there are references to María la del Barrio and El Chapulín Colorado!).
12	Sam Kerr	778,315	The captain of Australia women's national soccer team, aka The Matildas, missed most of the World Cup (#14) co-hosted by them with 'neighbor' New Zealand due to a preceding injury, but still managed to land a historic semifinal by converting the decisive kick at the quarterfinal with France, and then scored an equalizer against England that was unfortunately followed by two goals by the Lionesses.
13	Vivek Ramaswamy	757,178	The 2024 presidential candidate pulled ahead in some polls for the 2024 Republican primaries ahead of a state governor, but still remains behind the former president who doesn't seem to believe in democracy.
14	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup	739,845	The event that provides some preparation for the sleepless nights sports fans will endure in the 2032 Summer Olympics to be held in one of its host cities, women's football boiled down to England (beating in the semifinals #12's Australia) against Spain (who beat Sweden, afterwards winners of the third place match). The final was in the day right after the week covered by this Report, and let's just put that La Roja beat The Lionesses, making the Spanish current champions in all three female categories (senior, U-17 and U-20).
15	Neymar	670,853	The ex of #11's leading lady Bruna Marquezine was the most expensive transfer ever when Paris St. Germain brought him in 2017, and now the Brazilian striker has exchanged being paid by the emir of Qatar to getting his money from the Saudi government by signing with #22. At the age of 31, Neymar is an exception on how footballers usually head to the Middle East in order to finish off their careers.
16	Heart of Stone (2023 film)	651,277	Another film on this list, this one being an action-thriller released on Netflix on August 11 to mixed reviews. Fun fact: lead actress Gal Gadot was also an initial choice for the role of Barbie in #10 but she turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Bad choice.
17	Premier League	618,401	The 32nd edition of England's top football league started last week, prompting users to go to Wikipedia to keep track of the tournament.
18	Richard Sackler	606,914	American billionaire who owned the company Purdue Pharma that produced OxyContin, which was involved with the Opioid epidemic in the United States, which resulted in a lot of lawsuits that ended up with Sackler filing for bankruptcy. The new Netflix show Painkiller documents the company's downfall.
19	FIFA Women's World Cup	530,014	#14 made Spain match Germany as the only world champions in both genders (the other female winners are the United States, Japan, and Norway, and only the first ones have reached further than a round of 16 in the male tournament). The hosts of the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup will only be determined next year, out of four candidates.
20	Wataru Endō	525,671	Among the changes to #17 was Liverpool F.C. taking this Japanese midfielder, who was previously in Germany's VfB Stuttgart.
21	No Hard Feelings (2023 film)	487,449	This sex comedy flick starring Jennifer Lawrence was released on digital last Tuesday, which brought it back to this list.
22	Al Hilal SFC	487,051	A few months after humiliating Brazil's most popular team at the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup, this Saudi team has brought in the country's current top footballer (#15) for quite the paycheck.
23	Johnny Manziel	486,660	Another guy on here because of a Netflix show, this one being Untold: Johnny Football which documents how Manziel's promising NFL career ended after getting involved in a lot of controversies.
24	Utkarsh Sharma	476,612	Son of the director of #1, Sharma reprises his role in the film from its predecessor, which he had appeared in as a child.
25	Michael Parkinson	473,791	Keeping off the new team of one of #15's former teammates, #1's predecessor, and another football star in Arabia is a revered English chat show host who died at 88, whose work (the best bits included flirting with Miss Piggy and getting attacked by an emu) even led him to be knighted.